I walked past this place daily as it was being refurbished from an old grungy boteco. The place looked promising as it started to put up trendy posters, such as the ones you would find at a record store as wallpaper. Hoping it would be turned into a low-key bar I was a little disappointed to see they were keeping it as a boteco style bar, except made to look cool. I decided to check it out when I saw they were offering acaraje (R$15).
The design is appealing and everything reminds you of a small boteco: the counter with the sweets, the salgados in the window and the grill at the back. However, the place is modern and clean with some tunes playing over the speakers. The place is cheap so at least the kept the integrity of a boteco intact. A caipirinha is R$10 up to R$20~ with sake. While Original is R$10.
Intrigued by the food menu but craving acaraje I immediately ordered a caipirinha and an acaraje. The caipirinha was strong and fresh, just the way I like it, though the acaraje was pretty disappointing. Taking a little longer than I wanted (as I was pretty hungry) the acaraje finally arrived. The acaraje was warm but not hot as you would think it to be having supposed to come out of boiling oil. It felt lukewarm almost as if it had been taken out of the microwave. The acaraje itself wasn't fluffy inside but dry and dense and the shrimp appeared to be the frozen kind and they weren't fried either.
Not impressed by the acaraje I ordered the pernil (pork) sandwich R$17. Much better than the acaraje but nothing amazing at the same time, just your standard pernil sandwich.
I arrived expecting a modern boteco, with a modern twist on some old boteco classics but left just thinking it is just a boteco with a modern look. Having said that it is clean, the service is attentive, a good vibe which botecos aren't exactly renowned to be. It still retains a little bit of the grungy vibe with the music and clientele but overall it would just be your local bar with potential to be something great. read more